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The domestic and foreign strategies – ranging from the attempted coup five years ago to current moves and warnings – weaken not only national and global jurisprudence. The implications are broader.

They jeopardize the core idea of what we mean by.

The moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the more powerful from preying upon and using the less powerful. Otherwise, we would be permanently immersed in a state of nature where only the fittest prevails.

This ideal is embedded of America’s founding documents. It’s also the heart of the global system established after WWII supported by the United States, which stresses multilateralism, democracy, individual liberties, and the rule of law.

However, it is a delicate principle, often broken by those who choose to misuse their influence. Upholding it necessitates that the influential have a sense of duty to avoid seeking short-term wins, and that society ensure they answer for their actions if they don't.

Unchecked strength does not make right. It makes for turmoil, upheaval, and war.

Whenever entities that are richer and more powerful target and use those that are less so, the framework of our shared norms unravels. If these actions are not contained, the structure collapses. If not stopped, the world can plunge into disorder and conflict. We have seen this pattern previously.

Today, we live in a global community with deepening divides. Authority and resources are increasingly centralized than in modern history. This encourages the elite to leverage their position against the disadvantaged because they feel above the law.

The fortunes of a handful of tycoons is almost beyond comprehension. The power of global industrial giants covers a vast portion of the world. Advanced technology is poised to consolidate wealth and power to a greater degree. The offensive capability of the major powers is unprecedented in human history.

Enabled by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the executive office has been turned into the supreme and answerable-to-none entity of the state in recent memory.

Consider this confluence and you grasp the looming crisis.

A direct line ties previous lawless actions to present-day threats. These were premised on the overconfidence of omnipotence.

You see much the same in the actions of other powers: in territorial invasions, in coercive diplomacy, and in the worldwide exploitation by powerful corporate entities.

Yet, strength without restraint does not make right. It makes for fragility, upended order, and bloodshed.

History shows that laws and norms to constrain the influential also safeguard them. Without such constraints, their relentless pursuit for more power and wealth in time cause their collapse – taking down their enterprises, countries, or domains. And threaten world war.

This blatant lawlessness will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and the very idea of civilized conduct – for the foreseeable future.